Year 11 - 2024/2025: Heading down the home straight towards that finish line!

[QueenMabby]

Next thread. 10 days of exams to go. Looks like we’re all heading into a busy week this week - good luck!

Oh my god @Eccle80 - if English Lit had been the last exam...! That would have sent me into a tailspin.

Apart from a few trips away with us DS hasn't got a huge amount on this summer. Like a PP I'm hoping he'll help out with cooking family meals etc (he says he wants to!). He's also just realised that Wimbledon starts soon and is planning to watch loads of that. Can't argue - that's exactly what I did!

Yesterday was a small amount of effort today has been much more focused. Physics has always been one of DD’s top performing subjects and I gently suggested it would be a shame not to fulfil the potential because of no last minute focus. FM is Tuesday and that is an A-level choice and an A (ORC) is needed, so there is some motivation in that. Tonight it is a Father’s Day trip to cinema.

Oh, no! That is truly horrible to be suffering from a migraine…. I really hope you’re feeling better ( sending over a huge mental icy bowl of Strawberry 🍓 Cheesecake! - as long as it doesn’t give you brain freeze and put you back to zero again, head 😣 wise 🙄🤞!).

Well, good your DD is hard at the Spanish and FM- that’s a positive! Don’t you just sometimes want to go “ Ummm, yay! But, ummmm, OH BLOODY HELL!! It’s Physics, FIRST!!! 🤷‍♀️

I so hope she gets round to doing some… 🤞……. I fear DS is on yet another break……..🤷‍♀️😾🙄!!

Wow-what a fabulous parent you are @Sisublondie -am in awe of your efforts.
DS he probably done about an hour of physics- - we went out for a Father’s Day drink and now he is playing ps5 with his pals.We are having a curry at 6.30 ish so will force him to do some post then.

Yeah - very limited physics done today - an hour tops. He’s now in the basement working out. I can’t get too over excited about it - it is what it is. In 18 hours IT WILL BE OVER (apologies all those with music, DT, Spanish, FM or anything else still ongoing).

I gave DD2 a little talk about 'today DD2' not letting down 'future DD2' when she opens those paperstomorrow...whether she actually listened is anyone's guess. I am hoping she has done enough.

She's ostly very excited about some woodwind doubling workshop she'd had on Friday. But I have very little control over what she's actually doing today... though I did get a text about some 'physics flashcards'. Fingers crossed.

DS did some music revision yesterday. He could do much better but there's no time for anymore revision now. Leaving it till the last weekend mñwasn't a great idea but others needed more attention so can't be helped and it is not on of DSs A/L choices and he's already done well on 2/3 of it so it'll have to be enough at this stage.
He's been doing physics today which IS one of his A/L choices and not doing too well in the past papers so DH desperately trying to teach him stuff last minute.....I can hear DS complaining about the lack of free time and DH responding with "grow up!". I'm staying out of it.

3 to go for us . ds is trying but he’s clearly done . Nothing for music but the nea carry him thru , worked on past papers for physics with dh today & yesterday . Foundation Spanish he’s done past papers to please me - we’ve nailed q1,2, 3 especially 3 we will practise another 90 worder tomorrow and we are done . Trying to get him to see if you go into foundation Spanish with one structure prepped in your head you can get it to fit most questions with a bit of lateral thinking - eg 3 well constructed sentences with a bit of tweaking in the past will fit day at school / last weekend / last holiday easily . He could have done higher no bother but think the teacher called it right . Good luck everyone tomorrow with physics . Can’t wait for Tuesday lunch . DONE ! We’ve bought him a new games console as a surprise that should keep him quiet for a bit ! Have warned him that post 16 we are DEFO not getting involved .

Ds2 has a school teams meeting for physics at 8.30pm. Odd time.

Anyone got any useful topics tips for revision for AQA physics combined or DT? Thanks to the poster for the bio leaching prompt for chemistry.

DC just sitting down to revise (better late than never) & looking thoroughly fed up. We did have a lovely trip out for Father’s Day though & can’t wait until the holidays properly begin for them.

Wha’?! 🤷‍♀️🙄🤷‍♀️?! Might be good, tho!!

Oh dear. You've reminded me. I think we had one at 7 but forgot. 8.30 is pretty late though. Hope the teacher isn't a Dad!

That makes two of us having that chat then.

It feels like it's just gone on too long. Music being the final one I thought might be good in terms of focused revision, but I'm not feeling the motivation that was there 3 weeks ago. Blooming half-term.

Hoping that she'll knuckle down tomorrow morning and do some last minute cramming.

Tomorrow is the day DC2 is dreading the most; physics and music. Physics because they need to get a 7 to do it next year and music because they find the listening really hard... and having got almost full marks on the NEAs, has rather checked out of revising set pieces because, "I care more about physics".

They spent 7 hours at a show rehearsal yesterday so arguably did a lot of music but sight-reading the music you were given months ago isn't being assessed tomorrow. More's the pity. Has anyone's DC got any thoughts on which of the set pieces might appear in section B (Edexcel) tomorrow...?

Never heard of a school doing teams meetings for revision! Is it just for physics or all subjects?

Sadly not!! I’ll post if I hear any! 🤞🙏🤞

Praying DD has done enough for physics tomorrow. We had such a lovely trip out for Father's Day – she planned and executed everything to a tee. If only she was as diligent with her revision!

Which foundation question has he prepped for? The first is describing a photo and the last is translating English sentences into Spanish. Q2 and 3 can vary on topic so is it one of those? Thanks.

DD wants Killer Queen for section B and hoping it's not a classical piece, but says she'll be okay whatever it is.

Dictation is her worst part - but so bad that she just has a bit of a guess and crosses fingers.

Interested in last minute AQA Design Tech tips for Wed too.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow the dictation is so hard- dd2 can get the melody often but then cocks up the rhythm. It will be what it will be I guess.

purcell is her favourite on the set works- closest to English lit I guess… she often gets full marks on the essay bit. The rest she finds harder.

Aqa - q1 describe the photo - easily nailed with sentences like there’s a man in the photo / in the foreground there is a table / they are eating / happy / in a school / etc
q2 40words
q3 translation into Spanish - we went through every past paper answer from specimen to 2024 and picked up on the common sentence constructions they look for . 10 marks available
q4 90w - my Spanish tutor on YouTube is very helpful . We are just prepping simple past / future tenses / time markers eg el ano Pasado Ayer etc lots of nice opinion constructions like me chifla / me gusta . Ca 25 words each bullet point / 2 ideas / at least one opinion and shoe horn one flashy phrase in learnt off by heart ( an opinion is good for this . Basically if it accurate ,but simple and nails the bullet point they should get 12/16 on a 16 marker HTH

We practised 2022 q1 today and then got chatgpt to mark it and give him pointers for improve it . You just ask it to mark against the aqa foundation Spanish criteria . It works fairly well

Dd is now revising Physics, whilst listening to her music pieces.

She actually likes the Afro Celt Soundystem, but that’s probably because dh is a fan, so she grew up with them. She is also big Sinead O’Connor fan and actually saw them live a couple of times, but was tiny at the time, so doesn’t really remember. Great band for a sunny afternoon at a music festival. Killer Queen would also be great, as her friend group got into Queen after performing in We Will Rock You together.

Yesterday she practically had steam coming out of her ears after studying the classical piece though.

DC2 writes a good essay ordinarily but having adopted a head in the sand approach to music revision, there's no telling what they may/may not be able to recall about the set pieces... beyond the lyrics 🙄. Turns out they know all the lyrics to all the pieces that have them. Hopefully this year's paper will require them to do little more than identify examples of word painting in at least two of any random set work and require a very brief analysis of the effect...

The dictation is something of a lost cause. It's a case of count how many notes, put that many dots in the bar going up or down.